Twitario allows you to see your tweets (or those of any Twitter user) in a diary format over a specified period of time. Enter a twitter username or sign in to your Twitter account. Share the collection of past tweets (cutely portrayed and dated as a diary) by clicking "share" at the bottom. Here is a sample diary of tweets from @teachersFirst. New to Twitter? Learn more from TeachersFirst's Twitter for Teachers page.

In the Classroom

This site could be used for students to submit an assignment of tweets they did over a period of time. Or use this site during a presentation on how Twitter works, showing the information contained in a succession of tweets. Have students submit a record of tweets that show their learning over time. Follow a Twitter user who provides resource links for a diary of resources that have been shared. Trace the tweets from the White House, any high profile political figure, or author over a period of time.

Flashcard Maker, as the title implies, is an online tool to create flashcards. This site also has a healthy bank of prefabricated flashcards that could easily save time in meeting your needs. The link to "Explore Flashcards" allows you to search for prefabricated cards sorted by subject and topic. You can save as sets of cards with tags and share with friends. You can add images to cards, making them not only more interesting to use, but also more versatile since you can identify and learn more visual things than standard flashcards. You can change the flashcard theme, font size, and viewing order.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Create flashcards for your classes using Flashcard Maker-- or have them make their own. Try using them as a introduction to a concept, then again in the practice of the concept, and again as a final review. It is a nice three for one creation deal! This would be great for teaching Latin prefixes and suffixes of words to students, use in science terms, or for standardized test preparation. Try having students create flashcards and share with each other to quiz themselves within their own groups. Teach students in higher grades how to create flash cards with multiple blanks to challenge their brain to remember more pieces of the puzzle. Show them how to carefully read through their classroom notes and underline the most important word or words in a sentence. Then have them leave out the most important words for their flashcards. Learning support teachers might want to have small groups create cards together to review together before tests. Have students create flashcard sets to "test" classmates on what they "teach" in oral reports.

Use Tineye as a reverse image search engine. Tineye's unique image search engine looks for the same actual image -- not the description. This is a great way to find out where else an image is in use on the Internet. To use this simple and free service: upload or enter the link to an image on the Internet. Tineye will search the Internet to find the same image even if it has been rotated, altered or cropped by using image recognition technology. What a terrific way to discover the origin of an image or find those using it without permission. Note that the maximum upload size is 1 MB. Use this free service without registering. Create an account to use other features such as saving your searches. Registration does require email verification. Download the applet for Firefox or Chrome for ability to instantly use the service. You must have the ability to install browser add-ons to use the add-on version of the tool.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

This tool is best used by a teacher to determine whether class pictures have been used elsewhere or determine the origin of pictures students have used in projects. Check the origin of student-used pictures to determine source. Determine whether pictures (yours or others) have been used without permission. Easily determine whether pictures have also been altered.

Teachers' Domain is a free digital media service for educational use. All of the material are from public broadcasting and its partners. This site aggregates thousands of media rich resources like lessons, videos, learning games and professional development resources. All resources can be found by subject area. In addition, each subject has sub areas to help you refine your search even more. You are allowed 7 views of material without registering.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this site to find activities and resources for all subject areas. Use the games and videos with a projector or interactive whiteboard. Use the learning interactives as a center for students to access or put on your classroom website or blog. Teachers you can also use the professional development area for previews of available online courses (cost) and lots of handouts on different teaching strategies.

Grok: To understand thoroughly and intuitively. Instagrok is an intelligent search engine that improves independent learning on any topic. It retrieves information from around the web but goes one step further by helping you navigate your way through the results, identifying and rating the difficulty of important concepts and creating review quizzes. It also displays concept definitions and the relationships between concepts in the left column. Be sure to watch the video for information on using Instagrok.

In the Classroom

Use this search engine to find information about important concepts and focus on student learning. Encourage students to "grok" any concept or term they encounter to gain a general sense of what they will learn. Display a "grok" of every unit topic as you begin the unit and use this visual display for students to access prior knowledge and make observations about what they see. Place a link on your class site, wiki, or blog for easy access or on a classroom computer for quicker searching. Demonstrate how to use this search engine on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this tool to save students' time while researching.

Youngzine is news and more for the young. Enjoy the different articles, comics, videos, etc. without signing up, or you can sign up to have full access to everything on this safe site, including teacher tools. General subjects include World News, Science & Technology, Our Earth, Society & Arts. For each class, teachers get a blog where they can post assignments and have students respond. Teachers can register their class for free. You can include specific articles and quizzes for each assignment. Comments are moderated to prevent inappropriate classroom content.

For each of your classes, you see a full report of each student's activities by going to your classroom tab. Youngzine also provides a safe "blog" environment for classrooms - a constructive, creative, and controlled way for teachers to create classroom assignments and foster discussions about current events! The blog can be completely private so outsiders cannot see student comments. Teachers control these settings.

In the Classroom

Have your students make comments on articles (public comments), take quizzes, rate articles, and participate in contests. You can create custom assignments and have students respond and discuss, right on Youngzine! This is a great way to assess student's understanding and create an arena for a discussion/debate between class students. Or, ask your students to summarize an article, as a way to encourage them to think and write.

There is also a tab for "U Write." This section appears to allow students to write about issues in their community, or programs they've heard about to help a suffering communities. You might consider having your students look at the different articles and decide on a community to help. Have them vote on the community they would like to help by using Votesy, reviewed here.

This site is a wiki which encourages you to add to their growing list of books from countries around the world. Joining is free and easy. Students who join can then create their own wiki in booklist format. It is not necessary to join to simply read the booklists, which are organized alphabetically by country.

In the Classroom

Encourage students to search here to find names of books from around the world. Have them check back often as it is a growing site. With school (and parent) permission, students can join and add their own booklists of American books or books they have enjoyed from countries they are interested in. Have students read one of the books and then create a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.

You will also find links to make your own rubrics (or adapt others), adapt or create problem based check lists, find Webquests or Thinkquests, find tools for students to write persuasively, and you can view online lessons or create your own. Those are just a few of the resources you'll find at 4teachers.org. Enjoy 4teachers video channel to see tutorials and educational videos. You might also consider joining in a weekly teacher blog on structured topics and see the featured site of the week.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

This site is a great site to begin with basic understanding of technology in education. Tutorials explain many of the basics educators must have. Ready to use lessons, rubrics, and calendar resources are easily available. This is also a great site for Spanish resources. Share with colleagues to help boost your technology savvy classroom!

Mailcatch quickly creates a "disposable" email address to use with web tools that require email registration. This could be your solution to using free, membership-required sites where students must sign up individually using an email address. This is the spam, update, and junk email dumping ground! Files are deleted on a regular basis. If there is something you need to check for site log in purposes, be sure to check it the day that the email is sent and save the information to a document on your computer. The genius of this site is that it is temporary but completely functional for protecting individual identities. Protect your own "real" email, too! Note that any "disposable" email address can be used by others at any time, so using a more unique address will decrease the likelihood that others have used the same one. Be clever!This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Have students choose a "Mailcatch" address in the beginning of the school year as part of your introductory lesson on acceptable use procedures. Once that email is chosen, they can use it every time they need to sign up for a website that requires an email. After they have used it in your class, show them how to check the mail by typing in their "address" into the web page. Here they can see their email, such as membership confirmations.

Create private or public sign ups for easy creation of snack lists, volunteer sheets, party planners, parent/teacher conference planning, or project preparation. Sign up for free using an email address (email verification not required). View your created sign ups under My Account. Be sure to view the Frequently Asked Questions for help in using this simple resource. Find complete guides for an even smoother sign up process under the Planning Resources tab. Follow the directions for creating your sign up including all the details. "Invite" and "Publish" to set your privacy options as well as enter the email information to send to others. Add a web button to your site to take users directly to your home page to find active sign ups (find this function under "My Account").

In the Classroom

The possibilities are endless. Use this for planning parties, bringing in materials for projects, and any other activity that requires coordination. If you have limited technology availability, this is a great way for teachers or students to sign up for time slots to use laptops, iPads, video cameras, or a podcast recording station. Go paperless with your signups! Share this tool at Back to School night (and with your room parent or PTO). Organize your parent/teacher conferences. Plan student research of class projects using this resource. Help students build organizational skills by having them "plan" a mythical event such as a museum opening for their Famous Scientists exhibit.

Join.me is a web browser-based tool that allows you to share your PC (or Mac) screen with anyone who has access to the web. To share your screen, simply download a small application to your Windows or Mac OS X PC. (Windows and Mac users can across platforms; it doesn't have to be Windows to Windows or Mac to Mac.) Send the 9-digit code generated to your collaborator (an email is automatically created). They either click a link in the email, or go to the join.me website and input the code, and they can see your screen. There is a share control feature that can be turned on allowing both users access to either computer. You may need to request download and install by school tech staff if computers are locked down for installing software. Test it out at home first.

In the Classroom

Screen share with students in computer labs to demonstrate items such as website addresses, how to locate information on websites, or when learning text editing features such as changing font size or color. Use this tool to collaborate with other teachers when creating lesson plans or student documents. Students with laptops can share the screen with the teacher during presentations to make information easier to view. Share this site with students to use at home when collaborating on projects. Help a homebound student by sharing your class computer screen and opening an audio connection on the phone. Offer "extra help" sessions via screen share at predetermined "office hours" or during a snow day. Have students teach tech skills to their peers using this free sharing app.

Just as the name implies, this site offers the opportunity for teachers to post a wish list of items wanted for the classroom. The list can be shared with others in the community, providing a way for people to donate and receive a tax deduction. Sign up is easy, search the site for your school, click teachers, then create your wish list. Be sure to visit the wish list tool kit that offers suggestions for publicizing your list. When donations are received, the teacher is notified and can order items to be sent directly to school. Donors can recommend what they want to be purchased; however, it is up to the teacher how to spend the money. Administrators and school PTO/PTA's can also create their own wish lists.

In the Classroom

Use this site as a potential funding source or make a donation. Join the site (free). Then take the time to write up a clearly-worded wish list for potential donors to view. Share the site with parents and others in the community using the tips on the site. If you have a sister school in a needy area, this is a great way for them to list their needs and for your own school to organize the donations. Instead of holiday teacher gifts (another coffee cup?!), why not use this tool to request items you really need for your classroom or school?

Disposable web page offers the convenience and freedom of sharing information on the Internet with little hassle. Each disposable webpage has a count down clock. Set the clock to count down anywhere from 90 days to 0 days from the time the page is created. When the remaining time reaches 00:00:00:00, the page is automatically set for disposal and will exist for 2 more weeks before being "incinerated." Features that can be included on the page are bookmarking, rich text editor, uploading up to 5 images, and sticky notes with sticky notes player. The page creator receives an editing "key," and can generate a new key for editing by others.

Unlike other web page and online project creators, this tool erases your digital footprint when it is no longer needed!

In the Classroom

Create pages for quick link sharing or for upcoming events such as field trips, class party information, school events, science fair, etc. Pages will automatically disappear after the event without any effort on your part. Create a page to countdown to standardized testing and allow students to add tips and advice on the page as the countdown goes on. This site could be used during long term projects to help students "stay on track." Students can create simple pages to share links to include in presentations so classmates can participate on laptops.

Hate to waste paper? Use this free resource to print web pages without wasted white space, ads, or extra pages. Enter the URL (web address) of the website you wish to print, rearrange the elements, and print! To rearrange, edit the items on the left navigation bar. Choose to show or hide the background, images, or margins. Change the font or font size. Save your changes as a pdf for later viewing. Create an account for more features such as "change sets" which allow your formatting options to be applied to other pages from the same website and clips. Use the clips or pieces from various web pages to create a simple page that houses them all. Add the bookmarklet to your browser by simply dragging it to your toolbar. Be sure to check out the demo and videos.

In the Classroom

Use in the classroom to save paper and printing ink. Teach students to remove unwanted images and change margins to fit the content on a page. Be sure students save the page as a pdf to view and print again later if needed. Model an environmentally friendly classroom with the use of this resource. Be sure to check with your tech department on the ability to add bookmarklets to the browser toolbar. This resource can be used without signing up - a bonus for the classroom! Use this when technology access is low or you want to print an activity for students to do when you are not there to supervise the technology use. Create in-class reading from blogs or other websites appropriate for your classroom. Make a pdf that can be opened on your interactive whiteboard without all the ads and clutter of the web page so students can annotate, highlight, and even practice reading comprehension skills such as "main idea." List this link on your class website for families to try at home! Use it to share articles with parents, as well--as long as you model proper behavior by giving credit. Best practice ALWAYS includes a url and title/author on any printed article from the web.

The Outliner of Giants is a free, web-based outline program designed to support large, complex documents, such as reports and academic thesis. You can embed content from sites, such as YouTube Videos and PDF documents or simply attach your own files. You can export your outlines at anytime to your Google docs. The service uses Google's own user account system and an HTTPS internet connection. You and your students will be able to access your outline on your computer, iPads, tablets, smart phones, and Androids.

In the Classroom

On an interactive whiteboard or projector, create an outline of facts or concepts in any subject area. You can assign students to "outline" a chapter or story or assign groups to create study guides using this tool. Why not use a student-operated IWB at the side (as a "sidebar") during lessons and have students continuously add to the outline as a set of class notes. This will help them to become familiar with the traditional, formal outlining format. The class can create outlines together, after a brainstorming session using a tool such as Popplet reviewed here. Use Outliner of Giants for literature activities, research projects, social studies, or science topics. Create family trees or menus in family and consumer science. Have students collaborate together (online) to create group outlines before tests on a given subject. Have students organize any concepts you study: outline a story, plotline, or plan for the future; outline a step-by-step process (life cycle). As students discover whether they are more visual or verbal, allow them to choose between outline and mindmap/concept map as a planning tool.

This is a great tool for you or your students to use to plan a resume, a masters thesis, or any academic thesis. You may want to suggest Outliner of Giants to students to plan their letter of introduction when submitting college applications. You might even want to use it in your own graduate program!

Decision-making is easy and fun with this online tool. Just submit a question, propose answers, send out the question to peers, and wait for responses. Criteria to be included in responses can also be added to help respondents make informed decisions. After the question is set up, add contact emails to send out the question. This probably works best with students that have school email accounts already set up for use.

In the Classroom

Teach one of the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (evaluating) using this tool. Have s student operator open it on a projector or interactive whiteboard and have the class determine criteria for decision making, such as how to choose the best location for a field trip or decide on the best book to read. Ask how they choose books for independent reading, and have them develop their own criteria as a class. Send out questions for students to decide on classroom events such as field trips - offer 2 or 3 choices along with criteria to consider when choosing. Offer to allow students to choose the next read-aloud book to be used in the classroom, choose student of the week or month recipients, activities for classroom parties, etc. Use this site to start a class debate on historical choices that may be considered controversial (i.e the use of the atomic bomb). Share this with other staff in your building and use the site to make decisions on professional development topics, dates for get-togethers and more. Include this link on your class website for groups to use in making project decisions or to simulate political process and the ways legislators make decisions.

Looking for an alternative site to one you are unable to access or use? Use SimilarSites to search types of sites and read recommended replacements. View the title, description, and click on the URL to go directly to the site. Click on review to provide a review of the original site being compared. While older students can use this site themselves, teachers of younger students could also find this tool useful as a professional resource to find sources/replacements. The site uses the keywording that site creators provide and other metadata to find the "similar" sites.

In the Classroom

Find similar sites such as for photo editing, etc. when in the need of a new resource. Allow students time to look at the alternatives and make a choice based on their needs and availability. Create a class discussion about certain aspects of the sites being analyzed. Art teachers can use this tool to find artist portfolios to share -- and to avoid sites with art content you had best not to share in a school setting!

CyberWise provides tools for parents, educators, and kids to help them understand and use new media tools safely at home and in the classroom. The site provides an extensive collection of videos and resources that explain current media tools and ways to use them. Guides include Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Blogger, Prezi, Glogster, Facebook, Snapchat, Vine, and many others. Enter any tool name into the search box to see if there is a guide. Find information about media literacy, digital citizenship, cyberbullying, sexting, and more. The CyberCivics blog has the latest issues, trends, and tools to keep you an informed digital citizen. Sign up for the free newsletter and subscribe to the blog to stay current with information included on the site. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector with students to discuss media tools and how they are using them, or show before assigning projects using current media tools. Challenge students to create an online "scrapbook" on cyber safety using Smilebox, reviewed here, or ask them to create a simple infographic using Piktochart,
reviewed here. Share videos with parents to help them understand current media tools and how to use them.

This online countdown timer is meant to be as easy to use as a regular kitchen timer. It is equally simple: all you do is rotate the dial and point the red arrow at the desired number. It can take just one click - just grab the green dot that will appear to help you out and move it around. You will notice that the counter is updated every time you move the dial to make things even more clear. There are two ways to start the countdown - Autostart mode - in this case the timer will start working immediately after you set the time. It mimics the behavior of a real kitchen timer or Manual mode - to get the timer started you will have to press the green start button. Also, just like in a real timer you can change your mind any time and adjust it while it is running. This tool shows the exact amount of seconds in addition to the minutes.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

There are many uses for this practical online tool. Get out your interactive whiteboard or projection screen (or even the classroom desktop computer) and make sure the speakers are turned up. Use this tool for students to practice speeches, or to limit time for a quiz or spelling test. Shrink the stopwatch window in the corner of your interactive whiteboard as you time different teams completing a drag-and-drop challenge. The countdown feature could also be used for timing the rotations from center to center. You can even use the timer for reading fluency exercises or physical education warm-ups! A clever classroom management tool would be to start the visible count-down on your computer screen when you want the class to settle down for directions or to transition to the next subject. Students may even want to use this tool for themselves. Kindergarten students can practice counting along with the watch!

Create a podcast using audio and videos clips featuring NASA scientists! Follow the steps to create the podcast, including writing a production script, downloading clips, recording your narrations, and editing. Use a digital recorder, camcorder, or your computer to record the audio. Download a brochure or bookmark to remember the links for creating the DIY Podcast. Click on the links along the right side of the page for great resources such as the DIY Podcast Blog for some great ideas. Several examples along the side include creating a fitness podcast, lab safety, Newton's Laws, Rocket Science, and Solar Arrays.

In the Classroom

Provide example topics to your class once they have tried this site, and let them go! Podcasts can be used in any subject area. In math, have students "teach" the class a new skill via podcast. Rather than a traditional book report, have students create a podcast highlighting the main character, plot, conflict, or storyline or a book. In current events, have cooperative learning groups create a podcast debating a current area of dispute. You could record your assignments or directions; you can record story time or a reading excerpt for younger ones to listen to at a computer center AND from home! Have better readers record selected passages for your non-readers (perhaps older buddies). Launch a service project for your fifth or sixth graders to record stories for the kindergarten to use in their reading and listening center. Have your Shakespeare students record a soliloquy! Write and record a poem for Father's or Mother's Day (or other special events) and send the URL as a gift to that special person. Create great podcasts that can be shared on your wiki site, or blog!